Nokia claims victory over Apple in patent dispute

Apple may be kicking seven shades of smartphone out of Nokia in the smartphone market right now, but the Finnish firm managed to score one notable victory over Apple today – in a legal dispute over patents.

In a case dating back to 2009, Nokia and Apple have been squabbling over patents, but an impending court case has been headed off thanks to Apple agreeing to pay Nokia a one-time fee and ongoing royalties to use the patented technologies.

It's not clear exactly which patents Nokia is claiming have been infringed – the company has registered over 10,000 of them, after all – but either way, Nokia boss Stephen Elop was delighted the issue could be put to rest.

“We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees,” Elop said in a statement. “This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market.”

The original case saw Nokia suing Apple in 2009 over technologies found to be in use in the iPhone. Apple's response was to counter-sue and claim Nokia had infringed on its patents.

The case had been expected to make it to the courtroom next year, an eventuality that will obviously no longer be required. It's not clear exactly how much money is changing hands, or the terms of the royalty agreement going forward.

Rumour is Nokia gets a whopping 8 Euro for every iPhone sold.
If true, that is a pretty decent win for Nokia (for once, 'win' and 'Nokia' in one sentence doesn't end in '7' or 'disastrously stupid decision')